Renowned climber Nirmal Purja is among the 10 people who went missing at Pakistan’s Broad Peak after an avalanche struck the Karakoram range on Thursday. Nepal-born Purja was leading the group that had members from across the world.
While four of the 10 missing climbers have been found dead, rescuers are racing against time to find the remaining as bad weather poses to be a challenge in the rescue operations.
The group comprised five Nepali climbers in addition to the Omani and American climbers, Pakistani climber Sohail Sakhi, a Chinese climber identified only as Wang and one other foreign climber, the Associated Press reported, quoting Pakistan’s Alpine Club.
Who is Nirmal Purja?
Widely known as Nims Dai, Purja, 43, is a former soldier in the British army and has climbed the world’s 14 highest peaks in a record 189 days in 2019. This achievement was featured in the Netflix documentary, “14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible.” His record was surpassed in 2023.
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In 2021, he was part of the team of 10 Nepali climbers that made the first successful winter ascent of K2.
Before taking up mountaineering as a full-time career, Purja served in Britain’s Brigade of Gurkhas and later with the Royal Marines’ Special Boat Squadron.
Ang Tshering Sherpa, former president of Nepal Mountaineering Association, termed Purja as “one of the best climbers” in the world. “He has climbed eight thousanders for most of the time,” he added.
Purja was born on July 25, 1983, in Myagdi district of Gandaki Province and raised in Chitwan. Starting in 2003, Purja had a distinguished 16-year military career, of which he spent six years as a Gurkha and 10 years with the UK Special Forces (SBS), PTI reported.
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According to the UK’s Gurkha Museum, Purja is the first ever Gurkha to join the UK Special Boat Service, a unit predominantly made up of Royal Marines. The SBS, alongside the SAS, is regarded as the most elite unit in the British Military, it said.
“During his time with the SBS, Nims developed an interest in mountaineering, which quickly developed into a passion. In December 2012, whilst on leave from his Special Forces duties, Nims set out to trek to Everest Base Camp. This experience fired his passion and ambition for the mountains almost immediately,” according to the museum’s website.
In March 2020, he announced his new enterprise ‘Nimsdai’ – from the Nepalese ‘dai’, meaning ‘brother’ with a primary objective to share his knowledge and approach to big mountain climbing.
Through his charity, the Nimsdai Foundation, Purja carried out a lot of work to benefit the underprivileged. It included, along with his Elite Himalayan Adventures, a contribution of USD 5,000 to provide food parcels to Sherpa communities whose livelihood was affected due to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown.
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Purja penned down his story of scaling the Earth’s 14 of what are known as death zone peaks in a record time in the book, ‘Beyond Possible: One Soldier, Fourteen Peaks – My Life in the Death Zone.’
On Friday, Everest Chronicle reported that Purja’s GPS showed slight movement. However, they were quick to temper hopes saying it ‘might be a glitch’.
The publication further reported “Tracking data accessed by Everest Chronicle shows that Nimsdai reached an altitude of 6,659m at 9:38 a.m. local time on Thursday. The tracker then recorded a rapid descent of about 800 meters to 5,891 meters at 10:18 a.m., consistent with the reported avalanche.”